New Age2.png Silly of DA to hark back on apartheid education legacy Pinky Khoabane, The New Age, Johannesburg, 21 June 2016 Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane's claims that today's education is no different from Bantu Education is another desperate attempt to position his party as a formidable opposition. This is not the first time the DA has attempted to compare the ANC rule to apartheid's, which the UN declared a crime against humanity. In a campaign it launched recently, the DA placed the image of an embrace between Helen Suzman and Nelson Mandela and sought to equate its former leader's role in the liberation struggle to that of Mandela. Parliament's transcripts show Suzman could not be described as a true revolutionary, having supported bills that promoted the rights of whites while limiting those of blacks. She opposed sanctions and used her influence to block financial support to liberation movements. In 1970, for example, she used her influence to oppose a grant of $200 000 (R296 2140) from the World Council of Churches to liberation movements, and in 1973 she pushed for the increase of social welfare for whites only. But back to the latest assertion that apartheid education was better than that of today's education. The current education system must be seen against a backdrop of a systematic and structural legacy of apartheid. It's an education system that has had to consolidate numerous education departments and attempts to provide an inclusive and holistic education that includes transport, food, uniform, books, stationery, safety and infrastructure. Access to education and opportunities in our education system has improved tremendously and Maimane couldn't deny this. The increase in budget year on year shows a commitment to address the problems of the past. R297.5bn has been allocated to education this year, R265.7bn from last year's budget. The apartheid government spent R42 a year on a black child in comparison to R644 for a white child. Today almost R1000 is spent on the rural child as opposed to about R500 a child in the urban areas, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said in a radio interview. There's a massive infrastructural programme, especially in rural areas to replace mud schools and those built with asbestos. There's no denying that the backlog is massive and presents a challenge for the government. More than a 9 million schoolchildren in more than 19 000 schools have benefited from the National School Nutrition Programme. No such programme existed for the black child prior to 1994. The pupil-teacher ratio was 46:1 in 1955 and went to 58:1 in 1967. Today's statistics stand at 30:1. Despite the billions poured into South Africa's education, the quality is not improving at anticipated levels. What distinguishes the education of the past to that of today is the cadre of teacher. The quality of teachers coming out of universities are also part of the problem. They are not taught to teach writing, reading and numeracy at primary school level. So what created the calibre of teacher of yesteryear? Missionary education played a major role in shaping the sociopolitical development of South Africa's history. They were able to develop the kind of student who was intellectually astute enough to challenge apartheid's social injustices and demand equality as espoused in the Christian doctrine. Mission schools not only provided Africans with a firm grounding of the English language but they also offered links with Europe and the US. For example, the ANC's first president, John Dube, was able to travel to Ohio and enrol in a school there due to contacts from his missionary education. He later established Ohlange School and founded the newspaper Ilanga lase Natal. Mandela was seven years old when he enrolled at the Clarkburry Missionary School in the Eastern Cape. Stephen Bantu Biko at one time studied at Saint Francis College, a private Catholic school in Natal. Then there were teachers of the calibre of those that taught at Morris Isaacson. Many teachers defied Bantu Education and found ways of imparting quality education to their pupils. There's a massive knowledge gap between what pupils are supposed to achieve, what teachers and parents are supposed to impart and the leadership gap in today's principals. What we need is to come together as South Africans and find creative ways that can assist today's principals and teachers to impart an education that can pull our children out of the morass of poverty. From: <http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/21062016/epaperpdf/4.pdf> http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/21062016/epaperpdf/4.pdf -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. 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